Notes on publication: Jeni Smith, 5 December 2015

On 19th November 2015, very quietly, with no fanfare, marching bands or swags of bunting IntroducingTeachers’ Writing Groups was published by Routledge. It is a significant milestone for NWP that marks distance travelled and discoveries made. For us, it marks a moment when we have been able to take stock and set down some of the things that we have learned so far. The book emphasises the central importance of teacher agency. It is important to us that teachers’ voices are very present throughout this book, through their words and through their actions. You will see that the list of acknowledgements is lengthy. There are more teachers, beyond that list, who have contributed to a collective exploration of writing and the teaching of writing and who continue to do so.

Introducing Teachers’ Writing Groups places current teachers’ writing groups in a historical and theoretical context and sets an agenda for future thinking and research. We hope that the book not only sets out the thinking which underpins practice but also conveys the pleasure and power to be found in writing with other teachers. The book is threaded through with practical advice and with writing and reflections from practising teachers from EYFS to A level.

If you are or have been part of an NWP writing group, the content of many of the chapters will be familiar to you – we have set out to explain how to set up a group and the use of notebooks, we have considered the nature of composition, response and assessment. We have introduced the ideas behind writing histories, thought about writing in different spaces and with different people and have shown some of the impact of writing groups on the work of schools and children. We are indebted to many different teachers who have worked with us and through whose words you may begin to envisage the impact of writing groups.

When we began writing, we realised just how much evidence we had to work with and soon realised that this is just a beginning. Teachers’ writing groups are re-claiming, re-discovering, re-defining writing. They are taking responsibility for themselves as creative and thoughtful practitioners and recognising their professional responsibility to others. We also know that there is no single map for writing teachers. Each person will find their own way through the questions and challenges. They will identify the things that they wish to research and the ways in which they will choose to work.

One of the most useful ideas to emerge through the writing of the book is the notion of ‘orientations’ towards writing, writers, and the teaching of writing which was identified by Whitney and Friedrich(2013) in their review of the US NWP. They found that NWP teachers’ orientations transcended any particular set of lessons or strategies a teacher might use. Their teaching could not be summed up by describing a specific system. Whilst this makes it difficult for researchers to capture ‘observable changes in classroom practice’ it led Whitney and Friedrich to understand the value of orientation within a view of professional development conceptualised as ‘a decades-long series of encounters with ideas and strategies’. Orientations allow teachers to organize and synthesize the new knowledge and practice that they encounter over the course of their careers in a principled way. This finding is useful in thinking about how we can capture the impact of teachers’ writing groups and how we can go on to research the aspects of writing that are important to us.

Teachers’ writing groups provide the opportunity for teachers to continue to grow; to establish their teaching identities within a trusted community; to take responsibility for and ownership of their professional practice.The book is a product of where we are now, but much more importantly looks forward to where teachers’ writing groups can take us.

Reference

Whitney, A. E., Friedrich, L. (2013) ‘Orientations for the Teaching of Writing: A Legacy of the National Writing Project.’ in Teachers College Record Volume 115, 070305.Wrigley, S. (2012) ‘The benefits of freedom.’ in NATE Classroom Spring 2012.